External Articles and Publications

  • Digital Storytelling Engages Tech-savvy Accounting Students
    A well-recognized teacher in Singapore teaches an accounting course with the help of digital stories. This article includes a description of what he did, example stories, and a poll in which 72% of 46 students said that digital stories have enhanced their understanding of accounting.

    Knowledge@SMU (2008)

  • Evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling for student reflection
    This paper reports on the use of digital storytelling as a means of encouraging student engagement and reflection; consideration is also given to developing an appropriate mechanism to measure student reflection using this medium. Digital storytelling, the combination of still images with an audio track, was piloted in different learning contexts at the University of Gloucestershire, including: a students’ transition into higher education program; student presentations; and capturing reflections on personal development. Evaluations show that staff and students have found this approach to be a positive experience for encouraging student creativity; however, the very personal reflective nature of the stories created has raised issues about how student reflection and progression is adequately captured using this approach. The paper will report on the use of different models to assess this progression and the issues raised.

    Martin Jenkins and Jo Lonsdale (2007)

  • Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions
    When students answer an in-class conceptual question individually using clickers, discuss it with their neighbors, and then revote on the same question, the percentage of correct answers typically increases. This outcome could result from gains in understanding during discussion, or simply from peer influence of knowledgeable students on their neighbors. To distinguish between these alternatives in an undergraduate genetics course, we followed the above exercise with a second, similar (isomorphic) question on the same concept that students answered individually. Our results indicate that peer discussion enhances understanding, even when none of the students in a discussion group originally knows the correct answer.

    M. K. Smith, W. B. Wood, W. K. Adams, C. Wieman, J. K. Knight, N. Guild, and T. T. Su (Jan 2009)

  • Ensuring the Net Generation Is Net Savvy
    Although the current generation of students may have never known life without the Internet, they are not necessarily "net savvy." Exposed to huge quantities of information on the Web - in text, audio, image and video formats - sorting valid information from misinformation is a constant challenge. Beyond the quantity and variety of information, students are now creating information, not just consuming it. This white paper explores the challenges of functioning in an information-rich environment where students must blend skills in finding information, using technology, and thinking critically.

    George Lorenzo and Charles Dziuban (Sep 2006)

  • Wikis and Podcasts and Blogs! Oh, My! What Is a Faculty Member Supposed to Do?
    Kim ponders: What is a faculty member supposed to do? She concludes that if today's ninth-graders are using the same technologies that her current students are using, there will be even newer technologies for her to learn about soon. Although that thought is daunting, she would rather actively participate in the decisions being made regarding the institutional selection and support of emerging technologies than scramble to catch up after a new initiative has been implemented. In her last e-mail of the day, she asks her department chair: "What can we do today to ensure that decisions about technologies represent what students and faculty need and what best supports teaching and learning?"

    Patricia McGee and Veronica Diaz (Sep 2007)

  • Active Learning and Technology: Designing Change for Faculty, Students, and Institutions
    Much of the rhetoric about contemporary higher education suggests that colleges and universities need to embrace change due to advances in knowledge, technology, transportation, and more - advances that have dramatically shifted the way we all function in the modern world. Commission reports, report cards, and public agenda profiles of U.S. requirements for higher education seem to be asking for substantive change. Many years ago, Chris Argyris and Donald Schon described such transformational shifts as double-loop learning, the kind that ultimately brings about changes in an institution's structure and processes. More to the point, however much the public rhetoric champions transformative change - the kind of organizational learning that signals a marked shift in the way colleges and universities behave - the reality is that most mature organizations and the individuals they employ resist change; and they especially resist the double-loop variety. One way to overcome such resistance is to lower learning anxiety through development programs designed to create new capabilities that people might find useful for personal, professional, or institutional reasons.

    Anne Moore, Shelli Fowler, and Edward Watson (Sep 2007)

  • Seven Problems of Online Group Learning (and Their Solutions)
    The benefits of online collaborative learning, sometimes referred to as CSCL (computer-supported collaborative learning) are compelling, but many instructors are loath to experiment with non-conventional methods of teaching and learning because of the perceived problems. This paper reviews the existing literature to present the seven most commonly reported such problems of online group learning, as identified by both researchers and practitioners, and offers practical solutions to each, in the hope that educators may be encouraged to "take the risk."

    Tim Roberts and Joanne McInnerney (2007)

Find more articles at the UWB Learning Technologies blog.